And it is...!

Wednesday afternoon, halfway through what is whispered with a mixture of excitement and trepidation:
Junior Camp!  This is the camp for young men and women ages 9-12, they come from Montana, Idaho, Washington, and join together for this week at Camp Bighorn.  We run events like: rock climbing, zip lining, challenge course, archery and shooting, low static course and rafting.  Their time is structured from 8:15 in the morning, to 10:00 at night, which is pretty impressive for a bunch of 9-12 year-olds!  We have chapel sessions with skits and songs, and a mud pit, and a lot of very tired staff!
     As the facilitation manager, my time this week has been in demand more than usual.  Considering that I am pretty familiar with how this age group works, and that many of the facilitators are young and in need of more counsel, my work has been close to non-stop.  Which is great--because I really like the work I do here, and it is very gratifying for me to be able to help others   The campers get here Monday afternoon, and events don't start until Tuesday morning.  We have a facilitation meeting every morning, while the campers are playing games with other staff for an hour, this gives them a breather and a chance for me to connect with them,  Tuesday morning, barely into the week really, the facilitators were all of a sudden as talkative as their campers!  So many things to talk about: lack of sleep; the inordinate amounts of hot chocolate being drunk; conflict between campers; funny moments; how to empower youth, and lack of sleep.  Counseling facilitators, playing with campers, and hunting down night lights, have kept us all running!
     But then, all those projects I was counting on getting done this week in my "free time,"  suddenly are not looking possible anymore.  But I keep on hearing the same message all over: Be still, and know that I am God.
     My brothers, Micah (10) and Jesse (12) are here for Junior camp, which is pretty fun!  It's special for me to be sitting in the lodge, a very familiar place for me, and look over and see my brother who is very familiar, but not in this context.  They are having a blast and fitting right in with all the other high energy crazy kids!  The other staff keep on mentioning how much they are "Doty's," whatever that is supposed to mean.  Apparently Micah approaches situations just like Anjeli, and they both talk about the same amount as well.  So five Doty's at Camp Bighorn, and the roof is still on!
     DeLancey is facilitating this week, and she is doing such a great job.  Guiding and loving these young women is such a natural fit for her, and she is excelling, whether she feels it or not.  It has been good to have this window into her leadership style and see her work.  I have been very impressed with all of the facilitators this week, they are doing such a perfect job, and I get this weird paternal pride for them. :p   Even though I can see what a wonderful job they are doing, they are still for the most part very stressed out and exhausted.  And yes we are halfway through the week.  I was tempted to laugh Tuesday morning, when they were (what they thought was) totally exhausted.  But they ain't seen nothin' yet!  If you would send up a prayer for them, I believe it would be answered.
     Anjeli is loving working on Admin, and if you go here: http://www.campbighorn.org/bh/2011/07/2907/ you can follow Camp Bighorn's blog on Junior camp that she is writing for them this week!  If you like pictures, and I know you do, check out these on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150241778575583.315769.344035665582&type=1

Thanks for reading y'all!  Look for more updates in the near future!

--faith

Halfway through week six of summer 2011!  Typically, the camps that come here are youth groups, so they know each other to some extent, and they have their leaders to help provide focus and accountability.  But this week we have a junior high/high school camp with the kids who want to come to Bighorn for a camp, but their youth group is not coming.  It is an exciting opportuity for these kids to meet some new people, and also for the facilitators to really provide leadership and pull the group together through team building iniatives and events.   

Anjeli is a facilitator this week, she has the only girls group so they all hang out together, and we call them her posse.  (In the best possible sense you can think of)  All the facilitators for this week are super friendly, and good with people, and I am so encouraged by their willingness to invest in their kids. 

DeLancey is TACing rock climbing and looking all hardcore while she does it.  She is very capable, and is taking responsibility well this summer. 

Through brainstorming how to keep extremely distracted junior high twelve year old guys focused; making brake lines for the high static; and scrubbing twenty dirty pizza pans, the summer staff is learning and maturing.  We have been able to have some insightful conversations with each other, and be minstered to as we minister to others.  I am really blessed to be working with the facilitators, and am learning a lot about leadership.  I don’t feel as if I ever do anything good myself, I just look back on what happened, and say “Wow.  Thanks for doing that, God!”  Because there really are great things going on, and it has nothing to do with me! 

I hope you are having a lovely summer, please find rest sometime.  I am thanking God for Camp Bighorn and how He has changed me through its ministry.  How cool is it, that God doesn’t stop there, but continues to teach me by giving me opportunity to be involved in His work here.  Thank you for your part in this ministry, may you be blessed tenfold!

Here are some pictures of the kids that have joined us this summer...

Happy birthday to Jesse Isaac Doty, he is twelve today! 

--faith

Week Six!

After training how to set up and run all the events for two weeks our first camp rolls in, if you really think about it we only have two weeks to learn everything we need to learn about how to facilitate, how to T.A.C, how to do Operations and Guest Services and Chapel and Administration etc etc etc.

The first camp that came I was a Stamper which is where you go through all the events just like a camper, just to get the experience and perspective.  Camp Bighorn does it when they have small camps; run summer staff who haven’t been a camper at Bighorn before through the “stamper week”. 

That was really cool for me to be able to kind of see into what a camper experiences during their time here.  I felt like it really helped my to understand how they feel in that position.

Week four I was on Guest Services for the last couple of days after coming back from my family reunion. That was a little bit difficult for me to connect with the campers that week because I had to come in half way through the week, but it was still good the little bit of time I got to talk with some of the campers.

Week five I was on Operations, on operations you fix things that are broken and you build things like they are building a new Operations building so we work on that but it is mainly a lot of odd jobs.  I was kind of exited for my week on operations just because every one says that operations is a cool experience and that I would enjoy it, so I was looking forward to that until I got sick.  I had to take some time off for that which was hard for me because I knew that I could push myself and do it, but people just had to tell me that, "Yea I could, but I would never get better if I did."  So they had me take some time off just to heal, I took a day off and the next morning I was like, I can work but then they had me take more time off and it was kind of hard for me just to rest during that time because I felt like I was letting people down and wasn’t pulling my own weight, but then some one on the Operations team told me that pulling my own weight would be to get better and to just rest. The last couple of days when I was sick I  took some time and read my Bible and I felt a lot more peace when I was just reading my Bible and lying down.

This coming week I am TACing rock climbing, I am really exited about it because that is what I wanted to do this week.  I am a little bit anxious about it just because I am thinking like, “oh what if I forget how to tie this knot” or, “what if I forget this” or this thing or, or, or.  So I am praying that not only I don’t forget those things but that I can just rest in the comfort that even if I do forget something it is going to be okay. We appreciate your prayers for the challenges that we have, and are and will be going through this summer!

~DeLancey Grace

Hey Everyone.  Anjeli here.  Here is a recap of what has been going on lately.  Staff training went really well.  Spent both time in the river practicing my "hard skills" in kayaking, and time on the land practicing my "soft skills" on the Low Ropes Challenge Course.  Rain showers came and went, sat around some great campfires, spent quality time with my "Family Group", and marveled at the stars.  week on Ops with a great team. Then we left for a week for our family reunion, came back to kitchen duty, and got to commune among dishes and hot ovens.  Friday afternoon I came down with something nasty- feverish, headachy, chills, unexplained weakness, and had to spend the next two days in bed.  Got up, attended the Program meeting, learned I was leading the Low Ropes.  Did two days of programming, and couldn't keep it together.  Back to bed for me for three more days and now I am here.  My fever broke last night, and I am trying to recoup without relapsing.  There is a sped-up version of my life for the past five weeks.  


The importance lies in the last part- the having to go back to bed rest.  After barely holding on until the end of the day, I knew I could not do it.  So I went up to the Program Director, and told him, "I'm exhausted.  I can't do it."  What unexpectedly followed was a deeply compassionate, loving, and challenging conversation.  I talked about not wanting to be irresponsible with my position, yet I was just exhausted, I couldn't go on.  He told me that we love people, not products.  That being part of a family is allowing others to bear our burdens, to catch us when we can't stand anymore.  That God, "The Master Program Director", as he said, has an even greater plan.  I came to him to to tell him I didn't think I was going to be able to run the event.  I ended up telling him something that had been really hard for me, and left comforted, and caught.  In the end he took my temperature, I was over 101 degrees, given two Vita-Waters, a sack of snack food, and the Bighorn guest room to sleep in until I felt better.


I know this post is not very well written, it my raw thought.  I appreciate your prayers as I continue this process of "allowing Christ's power to rest on me through my weakness" (summation of 2 Cor. 12:9).
This verse was in my head as I lay in bed:

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  

Matt. 11:28-30

Our God is faithful and able to keep us holy, to walk us fully into the land.

God is teaching me of His faithfulness. This lesson started with the issue of control: where do I get my strength?  What do I rely on?  I knew that I was unable to do anything worthwhile, that the only good I could ever be a part of was with direct inspiration from God.  But I did not believe that, and that is what God has been teaching me.  It’s the change between learning something in class, and using it at work; knowing that I need God, and believing that He will be faithful.  And how faithful He is, my first official day of being the facilitation manager and I was up early, writing down questions, striving to prepare perfect facilitators that would feel confident and supported.  I couldn’t do it, I walked away from my first meeting with them feeling on the verge of despair.  That is when God started taking what I had been wrestling with and learning the past two weeks, and beginning to reshape my identity in Christ.  I started walking along a trail and praying for the facilitators for the week.  Somewhere along that quite appropriately rocky path, I was convicted to get down on my knees and pray earnestly for one of them.  So I did, then got back up, walked for a while more, then got back down and lifted the next one up in prayer.  As I asked God to work in and with and through them, I began to understand that God would prepare them.  Not my meeting in the morning with them; not my presence throughout the day giving encouragement and outside perspective; their strength would come from God.  My role was to have complete faith that God would give them that strength. 

            I want to be perfect, so when I am given a task I prepare and prepare, and I think and I organize and I set out what I need and rehearse what I am going to say.  I, I, I, I.  I do this, and I think that.  My source of strength was myself.  It wasn’t until Anjeli and I led a challenge course progression, (initiatives and obstacle courses) during staff training, where our theme was “Where is your strength?” Or as we progressed to: "Who is your strength?"  That I understood how I must be inadequate to be perfect. 

            Since then God has been faithful and able.  This week is a small camp, there are only three facilitators instead of eight to twelve like we  would usually have.  I struggled with the question of “What do I do?”  I’m busy every morning, during meals, and in the evening, talking to campers, youth group leaders, staff—especially the facilitators, but then between those times…?  I started praying Monday that God would give me work.  And He hasn’t failed me yet!  I don’t believe He ever will.  Yesterday I spent some time with a group as they went through the challenge course, listened to one of their debriefs and just got some insight into their group.  Then after lunch I walked around by the carpet ball tables, interacting with campers and internally on the brink of wondering if God was going to be faithful and give me work for the afternoon.  Then one of the facilitators came up to me and said, “Faith, do you want to go rafting with us?”  And you know what?  I almost said, “No, I should find some work to do.”  But then I opened my eyes and said to myself “Oh yeah!  This is the work God prepared for me to do.”  So I went rafting with the group, and I believe God was able to encourage those facilitators and give some love to the campers through me.  Which is amazing, because I am so inadequate. 

            If it sounds like I am saying the same thing over and over again, it’s because I’m not just learning my lesson and regurgitating the knowledge when asked, anymore.  God is actually being faithful, and I am actually being a part of His body. 

So friends, God is good.  I pray you are learning this completely with me. 

--faith

Where confidence is placed.

Good morning!  This is not exactly an "update," this is me just dropping a note to tell you about how God is working in me right now. 


This morning I woke up early with my mind and stomach in a curious mixture of nerves.  I am teaching the High Ropes Courses to a group of alumni summer staff for the next two days.  These next four days of training consist of two-day rotations; the returning summer staff has signed up for special training in specific areas such as kayaking, rock climbing, high ropes, rafting, etc.  I was asked a couple weeks ago to help one of the permanent staff members teach the high ropes rotation, and the challenge course rotation.  I said yes, and was excited for the opportunity to teach, as well as being a bit out of my comfort zone--really anything that involves public speaking is--but I was looking forward to it.  Well.  That permanent staff member had to suddenly attend a funeral on the east coast, which left me teaching all by me lonesome.  Thankfully, I was given time to plan, and another staff member was asked to help me.  [The sounds of breakfast are playing in the background, so I must be brief.]  So back to this morning, I awoke, prayed, reviewed my lesson plan and wrote some notes; then I had to break and read the devotional the whole staff is going through.  The verse on the top of the page was James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."  The entire devotional was speaking the truth I so desperately needed to hear, then as we sang and worshiped God together, I felt my confidence growing.  Not that I was going to be this great teacher, but that I am a disciple of the Great Teacher.  I felt like I could move mountains if God asked me.


I wish I had more time to share with you, but I am teaching in 40 minutes and I have gots to go.  


"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in allthings, may have an abundance for every good work."
--II Corinthians 9:8


--faith

And We're Off!

  

Two days and sixteen minutes, and counting…

Shampoo, “check.”  Sandals, “check.”  Watch, “check.”  All packed, and Camp Bighorn is materializing into something real and tangible.  I think that I kind of just told myself that because I did not have everything that I needed, that it couldn't actually be happening yet.   But leaving for Camp Bighorn is so much more real now, and frankly it is kind of scary.  It is easier to encourage other people to trust God, but then it is yourself that has to trust God, it is so much more difficult!  You realize why people have to pray that they would trust God;

as Francesca Battistelli says it:

"I’m giving into Your gravity, knowing that You are holding me."

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wANs4_-i2vk)

I really need to be able to do that more. I’m ready practically, but I need your prayers to be prepared mentally.  Because it is easy for me to say “I’m ready” just because I’m packed, and not even think about being mentally prepared.

Before I go into something I like to know what to expect from it; yet how can you expect the unexpected?  Letting go of control is one of the thing that will be a challenge for me this summer, because I just feel more prepared if I know what is going to happen.  I pretty much have always known what I’m getting into before I get into it, so Camp Bighorn is a first for a lot of things for me. I feel that I have always had my family with me,

and so this is my first kind of “stepping out by myself,”

instead of just doing what my family does and following them.

So I hope this summer I will be able to do what Mathew ten thirty nine says:

“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” 

That I would be able to remember this verse and apply it to myself.  Also that part of losing myself would be doing only what God wants me to do, and not care what other people think.

~DeLancey Grace

This working weekend.

Hi guys!  Just an update from your favourite Doty girl. ;)

Camp Bighorn's work weekend is May 27th-30th, and then only eleven days 'till we ship off for the summer!  Our whole family is heading up for the work party- and they thought three Dotys was going to be an adventure!  I think it will be great for us all to work together, for a number of aspects.  One, so our parents will have a closer look into what we will be doing all summer, reassuring them of safety, etc. (especially a certain mother in the group...;)  Two, being DeL's first summer, I think she will appreciate the opportunity to "get her feet wet" (perhaps more literally than theoretically!) before heading into the summer.  I know she is going to thrive, and I cannot wait to see her realize that. :)  Apologies for the bigsisterness.  And three, I know it will be nice for all three of us to be able to return to Bighorn.  Hopefully, it will feel like going home; instead of leaving home.

One thing you can pray for me over the summer is that I would not fall into my bad habit of of making plans for myself, because I am subconsciously worried God is not.  I was preparing myself for the first day of staff training the other day, and caught myself planning out word for word what I would say to a friend whom I haven't seen since last summer!  I know planning can be good, the ant storing up for winter and being called "wise" (Proverbs 6:6); but I see it leaving me with a tendency to shut out God and His plans.  Whether it is rooted in fear, pride, or confusion is not clear to me.  I ask that you would pray that I would succeed in the area of trust, subject myself to His will, and go with His flow.  Thanks to you all, and love!

In Christ,
Anjeli Carol

Twenty-four days 'till

     The days remaining until we head off to Camp Bighorn are dwindling quickly.  Anjeli, DeLancey and I are mixed cases of excitement, nerves, enthusiasm, stress, eagerness...all nicely summed up in one word, anticipation.  Staff Training begins June 12th, and we plan to arrive at Camp on the 11th.  

     I would like to take a moment here to thank you for being part of our lives, and for caring about "what's up" with us.  We feel very honored that would want to be involved in our 'doings.'  

       One other piece of exciting news is that I was asked to be the facilitation manager this summer!  What this means is that instead of rotating through the positions of:

• Guest Services 
• Event Coordinator 
• Operations
• Facilitator (Counselor)
• Chapel Leader 

I will be 'managing' all the facilitators for each week, leading meetings, taking part in debriefs and events, encouraging and offering any insight I might gain.  In a sense I will be "facilitating the facilitators."  Camp Bighorn would like the facilitators to see themselves as part of a team, working together to counsel campers in their adventures.  Part of my job will be to encourage this mindset and debrief the very experience of facilitating.  Now, while I am very excited for this opportunity and honored by this responsibility, part of me (okay, maybe most of me) is largely intimidated by this challenge!  For some reason, nobody ever feels sorry for me when I am asked to be responsible.  I feel rather insecure in my own abilities to counsel and 'impart marvelous wisdom' and all that jazz, but when I consider the matter honestly, I remember that being in that position really is the best seat.  From there, in the insecurity in my own works, I understand that I'm right where God wants me--trusting Him to use me, instead of striving to please Him.   Rather than saying "Look God!  Look at all this great work I'm doing!  You just stay up there and I'll handle this."  I can just say, "Take these hands, let them serve You."  This huge weight of pressure rolls off my back when I understand.  Would you please pray that I remember this constantly, and that I am receptive to the Holy Spirit's leading?  Thank you, Friend.

     So here we three are: anticipating June 11th, awed by God's faithfulness, and so very grateful for your involvement in our little lives.  God bless you, wherever you may be today!

"For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

--Philippians 2:13

--ƒaith

     

You found it!

     Here we be, with "Challenge over Complacency" as the name of our blog.
Challenge is an opportunity for growth, whereas complacency just lets you stagnate.
This summer we are dedicating ourselves to choosing challenge over complacency;
letting ourselves grow within the "Adventure Zone."
Thanks for spending the time to look us up, have a great day!

Here is some contact information: 

threedotygirls@gmail.com 

If you are a facebooky person, and would to be our "friend," put these email addresses in facebook's search bar: (one at a time!) 

faithdoty@gmail.com

          anjelidoty@gmail.com

--ƒaith